There are multi-sport athletes. Then there’s what Will Higson has accomplished at Haverford High.
Higson isn’t just a standout in three sports, but a leader. He doesn’t just have a bunch of participation medals but nine varsity letters, that despite losing his junior baseball season to the COVID-19 pandemic. And he’s not just filling the roster but is a three-sport captain.
To Higson, however, playing all those sports is as natural as can be.
“I’ve always been playing sports my whole life, during every season,” Higson said this week. “I really love playing all three of them, so that’s why I’ve always played all of them and I haven’t stopped.”
Among the accolades with which Higson leaves high school is the Delaware County Athletes Hall of Fame’s annual Team Toyota Male Scholar Athlete Award.
Higson is one of four athletes honored by the Delco Athletes Hall, which usually fetes honorees at a banquet that has been canceled for the second consecutive year due to the pandemic. Strath Haven soccer player and track athlete Maggie Forbes is the Team Toyota Female Scholar Athlete Award recipient. Fellow Panther Jackson Debusschere was awarded the Ernel Construction Courageous Athlete Award, while Garnet Valley’s Carlie Shiller was recognized with the Cirilli Community Service Award Sponsored by D’Anjolell Stigale Memorial Home.
Higson has long excelled on the field. It started in baseball at age five, following soon after with basketball, then soccer, and finally the sport he’ll play in college, football, in sixth grade. Even before pandemic disruptions, Higson’s calendar was a jigsaw of commitments and tasks. Football took precedence from August until November, and even when basketball and baseball shuffled in, he still had football workouts, for himself and in leading teammates.
There’s a unique duality to Higson’s omnipresent achievements. Haverford is far from a small public school, yet its many programs bill themselves as a tight-knit groups of players emanating from the same neighborhood. That camaraderie certainly factored into Higson’s choices.
“I’ve been playing sports with a lot of the guys that I still play with in high school since I was five years old,” he said. “It was always great to play with them since I’ve been playing with them for so long. That’s part of the reason why I kept playing.”
The leadership aspect, as a three-sport captain, also seems natural, and it’s the primary area in which his many coaches rave about him.
“It’s a big responsibility to have,” Higson said. “When you’re a captain, a lot of the younger kids, especially, but pretty much the whole team is looking up to you to do the right things. You have to lead by example, you have to be very vocal and make sure everyone knows what and when to do what they’re supposed to. It’s a big responsibility put on you by the coaches; it’s put on you to make sure everything runs smoothly at practices, especially when it’s just the players.”
As a junior, Higson averaged 4.5 points per game, fourth-most on the Central League championship basketball team, a vital post player ever ready to do the dirty work. He averaged 4.3 ppg. in a shortened senior campaign. On the diamond, Higson was the starting third baseman and a middle-of-the-order bat.
But the gridiron is where he was at his best, and where he’ll play at Franklin & Marshall College. He made the All-Delco team as a junior linebacker, part of a special Haverford team that made the District 1 Class 6A semifinals. He lists that as his favorite high school memory, to no surprise. Higson was even better as a senior, both on defense and as a running back. He was named All-Central twice in football.
As he shifts to become a Diplomat, having to focus on just one sport is something he’s looking forward to. But he’ll miss the hustle and bustle under which he’s thrived.
“I definitely think it’s going to be an adjustment,” he said. “It’ll be good to focus on one sport and on maximizing my ability, but I’m going to miss baseball and basketball.”
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Forbes, the Delco Athlete Hall’s Female Scholar Athlete of the year, was the 2019 Daily Times girls soccer player of the year and two-time Central League MVP. She led the Panthers to their first PIAA tournament in six years. She ran cross country concurrent to her soccer season, then ran in the indoor and outdoor track & field seasons for the perennial power Panthers.
Forbes will join her older sister Grace in competing for Rice University.
Debusschere, the 2021 Courageous Athlete, was a standout athlete in middle school before contracting giant cell myocarditis in eighth grade, which required time on life support at the ICU at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Debusschere recovered from the condition, which in many cases requires a heart transplant, and was able to restart school. Though he couldn’t continue in contact sports like soccer and hockey, he threw himself into golf to great success.
On the links, he helped Strath Haven with the 2019 Central League and District 1 Class 3A golf titles. Debusschere will continue his golf career at Cornell University.
Shiller was an All-Delco soccer player as a junior and a two-time All-Central pick. A four-year starter, Shiller served as a team captain for the Jags.
Off the field, Shiller is active in numerous community service projects. She lends her time to TOPS soccer, which provides athletic opportunities for players with special needs; Rise Against Hunger; the Meals for Miles program for veterans; and the Garnet Valley Interact club. Shiller has done a mission trip to the Dominican Republic, and she received the school’s Rotary Student Leadership award. Shiller will continue her career at Ursinus College.
